"Tave iyutrekyr iv Zia"

[Caffeline]

An old-style flimsi book wrapped in leather and secured with an old but serviceable genetic lock. Kaasian make, but the writing inside seems nonsensical; at least until a key is discovered on the inside cover.

Ri Radoma Wima demanded that I challenge both the twi'lek acolyte and the pureblood who sparred her, to earn tutelage that they clearly wanted to give to me. They said they had plans for me. I won against the twi'lek, but I lost against the pureblood - whom I was forced to challenge over holo. I hate doing public challenges. I am not a natural braggart, and it doesn't help that I've lost every public duel I've demanded.

Ri Cûccusuti was not amused, after I had so confidently told them I could win.

I have won before. This time he used a trick I had not seen. I will do better. I will not get myself in such a losing position again.

Ri Wohmonwsirsa saw fit to teach me a new meditative technique.. whilst it is not sorcery, it is definitely a foundation stone towards the ancient arts. It...is like nothing I have ever experienced before. I wonder if I will ever have the time to truly practice it before the war mobilisations are complete.

Ri Satwas summoned me to go with them to D'jaan to gather intel after I had cross-referenced the clues in the datapad they had thrown at me. We climbed a mountain in a blizzard. I could not keep up, and I almost fell from a ledge when my handhold slipped. I haven't been so terrified in a long time. Constant threats of torture and death at the estate are frightening, no doubt, but dangling off a mountainside ledge by my fingertips... I can't.

Falling... I just can't. Between the terror Ri Cûccusuti inspires and hanging off that ledge again, I will choose Ri Cûccusuti every time.

There was a subspecies of watch beast that roamed those mountains. One charged at me, trying to pin me and gore me against the mountainside. I fought it, it hated hits to its tusks, and it tried to herd me towards the edge. It almost succeeded. It charged, I leapt aside but not enough. Its tusk impaled my side even as I scrambled away and Pushed it over the edge it had tried to use against me.

I could feel my blood pumping over my hip. I couldn't think, could barely see straight. Ri Satwas had to pull me up to the camp with a rope, and I almost fainted then.

Then they did something I hope I never have to endure again. They used the Dark Side to -will- me back together. I could feel my body under their control as they knitted my organs shut, bound the broken bones, stretched and smoothed my skin back like new. They chanted in High Sith, over and over, after telling me to trust them...

I felt every agonising moment. Like intensive surgery without anaesthetic...but worse.

I will have fresh nightmares for months. Even now, I can still feel the memory of the pain wracking my body.

We found the intelligence post near the summit. We took separate paths inside. I managed to get into the base without taking much damage, though the stalactites tried to impale me. There was a droid guard which split itself into a second droid that acted like a sharp spider. Horrible thing. I made sure to crush it hard like the bug it resembled.

Ri Satwas got the data they wanted, but the trek back -down- the mountain was almost as bad as the climb. But we got back to the shuttle.

It was so strange to see my side caked in blood with no injury beneath it at all. But a stranger with my face looked back at me with eyes I didn't recognise.

I shrieked in shock, I'm ashamed to admit.

But my eyes... they're not my eyes anymore. There was a ring of burning gold around the brown. It seemed to be slowly fading as I was staring, but... it was definitely there. Ri Satwas mentioned something about the raw Force energy corrupting the body it's poured into.

I didn't know sorcery corrupted the victim as well as the caster. Usually the victims don't live long enough to be corrupted.

My eyes though... When I saw my reflection in the river, the gold wasn't there at all.

I know I didn't imagine it.